Susan Smith Trial

Re “Smith Is Convicted of Murder in Sons’ Deaths,” July 23:

I was surprised by the high speed with which the Susan Smith case has been handled. Why is this case so different from our O.J. Simpson case or the Menendez brothers case? The three cases represent a different angle of domestic violence: children killing their parents, an ex-husband accused of murdering his ex-wife, and a mother killing her children.

The most striking difference that I see in these cases is the financial one. It becomes clear that the higher the attorneys’ fees the more complicated a case gets. Smith’s case is far from being an easy one to decide; there was enough evidence to put in doubt her mental capacity at the time of the murder; there was a clear statement about the sexual abuse that she suffered as a youngster; there was evidence of her suicidal behavior before and after the killings.

However, none of these factors was convincing enough for the jury, and in two-and-a-half hours the jurors convicted Smith.

BERTA GRACIANO

Beverly Hills

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* What is happening in our courts?

First, it was the Menendez brothers who claimed Daddy was mean to them, so they gunned down both parents and still haven’t been convicted. Then, there’s the whole disgusting O.J. sideshow.

Now it is Susan Smith, who had sex with her stepfather, which made her a “victim” so she murdered her babies in the cruelest way. Yet she escapes the death penalty.

To those who say she will have to live with this the rest of her life, I say, “Who cares?” Why has the criminal justice system failed so miserably?

ANN MERRITT

Corona del Mar